


we have all of the ingredients (it’s a recipe for disaster)

by kara_pendragon



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - The Great British Bake Off Fusion, Bisexual Kara Danvers, Endgame Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor, F/F, I'm Sorry, Lesbian Lena Luthor, Mon-El is an Ass in This, Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:41:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26562325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kara_pendragon/pseuds/kara_pendragon
Summary: As Lena was sitting in the backseat of Kara and Mike’s car on the way back to London,  listening to Kara absolutely belting the Grease soundtrack and Mike complaining from the passenger seat, she knew that this competition was going to be the best thing she’d ever decided to do.-OR-The Supercorp Great British Bake Off AU
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor, Kara Danvers/Mon-El
Comments: 17
Kudos: 62





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Great British Baking Show is back this month and I had a fic idea to match. I should (hopefully) have a chapter going up to coincide with each episode. This is my first proper multichapter Supercorp fic so I really hope you enjoy it.

Mike had already headed out to the bar for his nights work Kara was looking forward to spending a couple of hours with Alex before he stumbled back through the door. His post-shift drinking habit wasn’t brilliant but no matter how many times Kara tried to convince him out of it he still stayed on late at the bar at least once a week.  
They sat on the sofa, Kara having already brought in the snacks, a smattering of small bowls sat on the little coffee table. Kara grabbed the remote and turned on the TV, switching the channel to BBC1. It was final night, and it had become a weekly tradition that Kara and Alex would watch Bake off together.  
  
Three years back Kara had started to bake for the episodes herself, trying to match the theme of each one with her own concoctions. Granted, baking had been a consistent habit of hers for years, high school home economics was to blame for that one. Brownies for birthdays, biscuits for breakups, pastries for promotions, you name it, she had probably made it at some point or other.  
  
Despite her love for takeaway food, she was good. Surprisingly good, she’d only burnt food four (eight) times. People always gladly bought her creations at charity bake sales. Sure, she wasn’t competition level good, but for an amateur, she was pretty darn good. It was at the very end of the episode when the yearly message was displayed, Apply for the next season of The Great British Bake Off that Alex voiced an idea.  
  
“You should apply” Alex turned to Kara, expecting the flurry of words that followed from her.  
  
“I’m not good enough, besides Mike wouldn’t want me to go, I’d never even get through. I’m not even British” Kara was beginning to word vomit, Alex looked back at her, steel in her eyes. Kara went quiet. She wanted an excuse, National tv was a ridiculous goal, she wasn’t at that standard.  
  
“You are good enough, Mike can bake right, he can apply as well, it’s not that far away, and we’ve all had citizenship here for like 4 years. You have no excuses, I’ll even send you the form” Kara’s protests died in her throat, when Alex was sure about something there was no escape.  
  
The door swung open and Mike stumbled inside. Alex took it as her cue to leave, not wanting to deal with Kara’s less than polite boyfriend, as she walked out the still open door she shouted over her shoulder.  
  
“I’ll send you the form”  
  
No sooner than the door had shut, Mike fell forward and passed out on the couch. Kara lifted him, straining under the weight, and dragged him to the bedroom. She’d ask him in the morning.  
  
Kara woke up with an aching back and sunlight streaming through the window. She never shared the bed with Mike on nights when he went out, the risk of him getting up and vomiting before he reached the en suite in the middle of the night was too high and she had no desire to be covered in her boyfriends puke. She’d set him up with a bucket and laid him on his side so he wouldn’t choke, he would be fine (except for a killer hangover of course). The couch wasn’t great for her back but it was a better option than the bed.  
  
Opening the door to the bedroom she stepped in, Mike was still out cold. It was already later than Kara normally liked to have breakfast before work.  
  
“Mike, get up.” No response came from the unmoving lump on the bed. This was why Kara hated Mike going out on work nights, he slept for an Age. She grabbed his shoulder and he shook awake.  
  
“We have to go to work, your internship won’t last long if you don’t turn up to work. Your bar tips can barely pay for your beer.” He stumbled out of bed and the two moved through their regular routine. Kara decided to wait until lunch to ask about the application, his hangover would have hopefully lessened by then.  
  
The underground was, quite frankly, infuriating. It barely ever arrived on time, the London office was only six stops away from their apartment but the journey length rarely reflected that. You’d swear that they lived on the other side of the city. They arrived in the office just in time, narrowly avoiding Snappers wrath. Kara was assigned a story about some event happening down at the docklands. By the time she got back to the office, notebook in hand, it was already one o’clock. She went to find Mike for lunch, it was now or never.  
  
They got to Noonans, a regular lunchtime haunt. Sitting by a window, Kara waited until their food had arrived to ask him.  
  
“So,” she hesitated, unsure of what his reaction would be, “Alex suggested something to me last night, for us to do.” Kara pulled the photocopied form out of her bag. “You know how we’ve watched that baking show together on the Tuesdays you don’t go out? Well they’re taking applications for the next season, and Alex thinks we could do it.” Mike looked up, mouth still full of food, and swallowed.  
  
“As long as it’s not too much work, I’m good at baking so we could do it” Not ecstatic but he seemed amiable enough. Kara gave him one of the two forms and a pen. Thus began the long stream of questions. By the end of their lunch break they’d filled them out in full. A quick trip to the nearby newsagents to print out some photos of a couple cakes and biscuits followed by a visit to the post office on the street corner nearby and it was done. They’d applied.  
  
~  
  
Luthor-Corps London branch was doing well, Lex didn’t regret his decision to move a portion of the business to Europe, and Lena certainly didn’t regret moving across an ocean to work in the new labs. It was a job that suited her nicely and there were things in England that reminded her so distinctly of her early childhood - the part before she was a Luthor – that she couldn’t help but love it there, hence why she had stayed there for six years, seeking citizenship about five months in.  
  
Since moving over she’d improved her work/life ratio, she had set strict rules in place for herself, no working late on Tuesdays, Thursdays or Fridays and, unless there was an emergency, she wouldn’t go in on weekends. Maybe she didn’t always stick to it, but her sleep schedule had greatly improved after leaving the states.  
  
It was this ‘home on time on Tuesdays’ rule that had lead to her guilty pleasure, a baking show. Being a child in the Luthor household didn’t really leave much space for messy activities like baking. Lillian would never approve of it. So when Lena discovered that making French pastries and complicated cakes or savoury tarts in her new found free time on weekends was great fun it came as a surprise.  
  
Lillian wasn’t ok with baking but Lena had a feeling her actual mother didn’t share the same opinion. Her memories were faint, not seeing someone since you were four would do that, but smell is the sense with the strongest link to long term memory. Every once in a while, when walking past a bakery, or making some bread, a memory would return. Clear as day. A polka dot table cloth, a bright red mixing bowl and a pair of green eyes, not dissimilar to her own.  
  
Maybe baking wasn’t a Luthor thing per se, but it certainly ran in the family. It was one of the few things that helped Lena remember.  
  
Over the course of the years following her newfound love she had accumulated a vast collection of cookbooks. Her favourite of which was not a published book, but a cloth bound notebook, filled with notes, musings and a mixture of recipes that she had invented or altered over the years.

Five years after beginning that baking habit had begun Lena decided to take a leap. What would piss off Lillian more than Lena baking in the Luthor household. Yeah, Lena baking on national television, some of the questions were a bit annoying to answer, but, she was fully eligible and the digital application was quicker than expected.  
  
She filtered through her camera role, looking for the best photos of her creations. Showing diversity in skill was her main aim. Her baking album was huge, she hadn’t realised quite how often she baked or how much she’d improved. Flicking through photo after photo, after photo, she eventually settled on three, chocolate and hazelnut caramel pastry braids, a tiered cake she’d made for Andrea’s birthday the year before and the plaited soda bread that she’d learned the recipe for from a café owner she’d met once, then uploaded them to the website. One tap and it was sent away.  
  
Now to wait.  
  
~  
  
Kara’s inbox was cluttered to say the least. She tried to stay on top of it, but no matter how hard she tried, there was always a backlog at the end of the week. The email was almost missed, that was until Mike arrived in her office with no knock.  
  
“I got in” his tone was laced with uncharacteristic excitement. Kara was confused for a moment, they hadn’t been waitlisted by anything recently. Mike noticed her confusion, “That baking contest? The one you made me enter last month.” So not a waitlist.  
  
“Give me a second Mike, I’ll check my email now.” Kara opened her email. A strongly worded email from Snapper, James sending on some photos, an email from the BBC.  
  
Wait, the BBC?  
  
Kara opened it, bracing herself for the likely rejection, but it never came.  
  
“I got in, I got in too.” Her voice was woven with surprise. “We’re going on tv, We are going to be on tv, Holy Rao. I should call Alex.” At that Mike left the room, letting the door close behind him and Kara took out her phone.  
  
“Alex, You were right, We got in”  
  
“Of course you did, you’re great” the line was crackly, as if she was in an out of service zone, or underground.  
  
“Where are you Al” there was a pause. Alex clearly trying to form a response that wouldn’t annoy Kara. She always preached honesty so Alex chose that approach.  
  
“On a raid?” that wasn’t the right response. Alex could practically hear Kara’s annoyance through the phone.  
  
“You aren’t meant to have your personal phone when you’re doing covert operations, you know this. Miss. FBI my foot, you need to be safe, leave your phone at home” Kara hit the end call button, she’d have a proper conversation with Alex later. When Alex wasn’t at risk of getting shot.  
  
~  
  
Long work days always wore Lena out, she’d just sat down on the couch to remove her impractically high heels when her phone vibrated beside her. She opted to ignore it, she still had her work email linked to her mobile so it was probably something from one of the board or a department head. Either that, a message from Andrea or a message from Jack. They had a knack for messaging at odd hours of the morning and night.

The fridge was nearly empty. Half a packet of butter, a litre of milk (or not, unbeknownst to Lena it had gone bad three days prior) and some rather sad looking kale is not exactly enough to make a decent meal. Lena grabbed her phone from the coffee table to order dinner but before she could do so, a notification caught her eye. The mail icon glowed blue beside a subject line “Welcome to the cast of the Great British Bake Off”

She clicked it, expecting a prank, or a mistype maybe. Instead she exclaimed to no one but herself,

“Holy fuck I’m going on bake off”  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That’s a start I guess. See you at some point during the week!


	2. Cake Week

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m back, this chapter was meant to be way shorter than this but I couldn’t fit everything I wanted into my original limit, this is also super unedited (pun intended) because I finished it in the early hours of this morning so all mistakes are my own. Anyway, maybe you’ll enjoy it.

“Hurry up,” Kara stood in the doorway to their apartment, Mike had been in the shower for what felt like hours, “we’re going to be late.” Ten or so minutes later, Mike finally emerged. They ran (or in Kara’s case practically skipped) down the stairs to the car park. Mike had agreed to take the drive down with minimal grumbling, the journey wasn’t long, but they had accommodation for the weekend which allowed them to minimise the number of journeys. 

Despite yet another short delay, this time caused by Kara forgetting her lucky spatula (“but Mike, it has dinosaurs on the handle, I can’t bake well without it.”) and their short stop to drop off overnight bags, they arrived in good time. Pulling up to a patch of grass, the white tent just barely visible behind a small thatch of trees. Kara’s eyes lit up.

“We’re here, We’re actually here, gosh, this is insane” Kara began to descend into a stream of excitable babble. 

“Yes, we’re here, come on let’s go let them know we’re here.” Mike abruptly interrupted, seemingly bored by his girlfriend’s excitement. Together they walked towards the group of people coming into view from behind the shrubbery. Kara was walking slightly ahead of Mike, far enough ahead for him to notice the badge clearly visible on her backpack. 

“Can you take that off.”

“Take what off?” Kara turned slightly to face Mike.

“The pin on your bag” he gestured towards the blue, purple and pink badge clearly visible on the pocket.

“Why? It’s just a pin, I got it at pride years ago, I always have it on this bag.”

“Can you just take it off?” He raised his voice slightly, then glanced toward the crowd, as if afraid they might have heard him. Kara went silent, before reaching around to detach the pin. She placed it in her front pocket, out of sight. 

They finally reached the group, as they introduced themselves around Kara took mental notes of the different people. Sara, a martial arts instructor, short, blonde, scary. James, a photographer, tall, brunet, seemed kind. Winn, software engineer, shorter, brunet, incredibly awkward. The list went on, Kara counted eleven total, including her and Mike, which left one missing. 

This missing person showed up about five minutes later, long black hair in a swishing ponytail and somehow walking on grass in the highest stilettos Kara had ever seen. She introduced herself to the group as a whole, clearly aware that she was the latest arrival. Kara added this newcomer to her mental list. Lena, scientist and businesswoman, black hair, short, - Kara caught a glimpse of a pink toned badge pinned to the corner of her handbag - and gay?

~

Where was the car? Lena had been standing in front of her building for twenty minutes waiting for the taxi she ordered to show up. Her feet were beginning to hurt from standing still for so long and she was beginning to be concerned about arriving on time. It had hit the half an hour mark by the time the car pulled up in front of her. She bundled herself, bag and all, into the bag seat and said to the driver.

“Welford park please”

“Where’s that”

“Berkshire?” Lena’s voice cracked on the second syllable. 

“You mean you want me to head to the next county over for my normal price, oh sod off”

“I’ll pay extra”

“Fine” 

Lena pulled the door shut and they drove away, she had meant to arrive early, giving two hours for the drive when realistically it was only one and a half, this meant that despite the delay they weren’t making awful time. She dropped her luggage off and then they finished the last few miles of the journey. Despite arriving three minutes before the time in the email it was evident she was the last there. Cars were dotted across the gravel verge, Lena hopped out of the taxi, handbag over her shoulder, and began to make her way across the grass. 

A group of people standing and chatting became visible on the far side of the lawn, She focused on her shoes, praying that the heels wouldn’t sink into the grass, the last thing she needed was to fall flat on her face in front of a group of strangers. As she reached the group, people stopped talking, some looking at her awkwardly, some blatantly staring. Everyone seemed to already had introduced themselves, she decided to just say hello to everyone as a whole.

“Hello, I’m Lena, I work in research and development but I’m also active on the business side of things, I’m twenty five. You can stop staring now.” A tall brunette near the back laughed. Overall the group seemed pretty cheerful, she fell into easy conversation with Sam (that tall brunette) and a shorter blonde woman by the name of Eve. 

-

A woman who introduced herself as Vasquez - “but you can call me Vas” - explained how things would work, who was going to get which work station and checked that everyone had the things they might need. People were pulled away from the group, one by one, to talk about why they signed up for the show and to give a bit of information about who they were. Kara was third from last, coming after a younger girl and followed only by James and another guy called William, another journalist as luck would have it.

She stood awkwardly beside a small stream while a crew member prompted her to talk about her reasons for signing up to the show.

“It was my sisters idea actually, we always watch the show together and I bake for it so she thought it would be cool I guess, I never imagined I would actually get in” 

Then they proceeded to ask her a number of other questions, do you think you can do well, are you excited, the sort of things she had expected. By the end of the few minutes she felt a lot less afraid of the cameras, everyone on the crew seemed so nice. Another crew member then told her to go around the other side of the tent, where she found everyone who had already gone. Mike instantly started up a conversation again, not giving her much opportunity to talk to other people. 

Before she knew it, James and William had reappeared, and Vas was telling them to head inside the tent. Kara fought to keep the star struck expression off her face as they were introduced to the presenters and judges. One of them stood up.

“You probably already know who we are, but I’m Cat Grant, This is John Jones and the two sitting over there,” she gestured to the chairs on her left, “are Querl and Maggie.” The next half hour passed in a blur and before Kara knew it they were about to start the first challenge.

-

A crew member, who Lena assumed was a team head or something similar, introduced herself and began to explain the ins and outs of the show and how things would work, then people began to pull away from the group to film a short clip of them saying some things about themselves. 

Lena was ninth on the list, meaning that she had plenty of standing around to do before it was her turn. She took the opportunity to continue talking to some of the other contestants, by the time she was called away she had debated the superior methods of hacking with Winn and Felicity, been asked if she’d ever been to Bristol pride by a woman called Sara - “No, I haven’t, I’ve been to London and Dublin pride though?” - and wanted to yell at a guy called Mike who asked if she’d ever done porn. 

There was a little stream to her left and the camera in front of her face was less daunting than she had anticipated. Once she got a flow going, talking to the camera was fairly easy.

“ In all honesty, I actually signed up because my mother hated me baking as a kid, I though doing something like this would be fun, if only to see her reaction.” Another prompt came from behind the camera. “I’ve been baking for years, pretty much ever since I moved to the UK” 

“If you don’t mind me asking, where is your accent from?”

“Is that one of the official questions”

“No, I’m just curious, you don’t sound English but you don’t really sound American either.”

“I learned to talk in Ireland, started primary school there and everything. I went to college there and lived there for a while after as well. That might be it” 

“Irish, yeah that’s it.” The crew memeber paused. “That’s all we need, you can go around to the other side of the tent, the others will catch up with you in a bit. Could you grab the next person before you go. Her name is,” he checked his list. “Nia Nal” 

“Sure,” she walked to the couple of people left over “Nia?” A girl who looked no older than twenty looked over, “You’re next” 

Lena walked around to other side of the tent, quickly becoming engrossed in a conversation about the advancement of forensics with a lanky guy with floppy light brown hair. The next person to round the corner was Nia, followed by a girl called Kara (Kara and Sara, not confusing at all). She went over to talk to them, wanting to meet everyone before they went in but Kara was instantly swallowed up in conversation with Mike, they seemed to already know each other. Lena wasn’t aware that it was allowed for contestants to know each other before the contest but it must have been. 

They were eventually joined by the last two people and directed inside, meeting the presenters and judges before getting a briefing, then, it was on to the actual challenges.

-

Kara ended up between Nia, with the back bench in their row, and Lena to the front, who was standing by her station, then ahead of her was James. The nervous excitement in the room was electric, everyone waiting with baited breath for the shooting to begin. One of the Camera operators began a countdown, then it began.

When they cameras started rolling Maggie went into a spiel about how long people had been preparing for this and impressing the judges before introducing the signature challenge, a Madeira cake. They’d obviously got this assignment in advance but Kara was nervous nonetheless. Her tendency towards minor chaos and her intense sweet tooth had let her down in the past, this time she was pretty certain that everything would work, right? Before she could decide, Querl (or Brainy as they had been told to call him) called.

“Ready, Steady, Bake!”

“So, what are you planning to do for your Madeira cake?” Cat and John had arrived at Kara’s bench

“It’s based on these chocolate ginger biscuits my sister buys, so I have cocoa and crystallised ginger with some orange zest and chocolate pieces.” Alex often bought chocolate ginger biscuits for sister night so Kara had defaulted to them when brainstorming for the challenge.

“That’s sounds good but I’m not sure about it for a Madeira cake, chocolate can be quite heavy. Have you tried it at home?” Cat questioned.

“Yeah, it’s turned out well so far.”

“If you’re sure” Kara wasn’t quite certain whether Cat was deliberately stressing her out but if she was, it was working.

“We’ll leave you to it” John said, before the two of them moved on to the next bench.

Almost as if she could sense Kara’s increasing stress about her flavour choice, Lena turned around and said to Kara in a lowered tone,

“Darling, chocolate ginger Madeira cake sounds delicious.” Then she looked to her own work station and went back to creaming butter and sugar. Kara hadn’t been expecting support from fellow competitors during the competition but it seemed she had been wrong, the woman in front of her seemed like a dark chocolate person. Kara was more of a white chocolate girl, she had chosen one of her “more mature” flavour combinations for the first challenge, not being sure how well marshmallow and rainbow themed food would pass on a baking show. It seemed like the whole chocolate idea wasn’t going to pass well either.

She weighed out her ingredients, creamed, mixed and sifted before folding in her ginger pieces and putting her mixture into a greased baking tin. She tapped the tin to level it then placed it on the middle shelf of the oven, at this point half an hour or maybe forty minutes of her time had lapsed, she set the timer and began to make her decorations. 

While waiting for the cake to be ready to come out, she made an orange and ginger glaze (twice, she managed to burn it the first time) and candied some fruit. By the time she had completed those elements there were still ten minutes left on the timer. She looked at the leftover chocolate on her bench, it seemed to stare her down, almost daring her to go further and add more. Grabbing it up she bent down to grab an extra dish, quickly melted the chocolate over a Bain Marie and piped it into little doodle-y circles. One minute left on the timer. She picked up the tray an put them in the freezer, praying that they would set fast enough to be usable. 

From the freezer she heard her timer go off, a high beep signalling the end of the cakes time in the oven. She checked it with a skewer and turned it out to cool. 15 minutes left. The glaze went on while the cake was warm then Kara stood there fanning her cake with a spare baking tray in the hope that it would somehow cool down faster. 10 minutes left. Candied Peel and crystallised ginger goes on. Five minutes. The chocolate set in time, she scatter the scribbled discs across the top of the cake. 

“Bakers, please step away from your benches.” Kara had finished, she had actually finished, the cake looked good, the chocolate discs were definitely the right move. She glanced across the aisle at Mike who caught her eye, glanced at her cake, and gave a half-hearted smile.

Cat and John began to make their way from bench to bench. Starting at the front of Kara’s row, moving gradually backwards. She could hear the feedback that those in front of her were receiving, William managing to set the bar fairly low - “I can’t really taste much and the texture is far too dense, your decoration is fairly good.” - Sam’s seemed good, James received good feedback, then it was Lena’s turn. Kara watched it from behind her - “Your flavour combination is immaculate, your decoration is flawless, well done” - darn it, that was going to be a tough act to follow.

The judges came up to Kara’s bench and cut a slice of her cake, each took a bite and stood chewing in silence for a couple incredibly long moments. Kara was absolutely terrified, what if they thought the chocolate didn’t work.

“You know, I wasn’t so sure about this cake when you described it to us, but you made it work. The cake is moist and chocolatey but still has a distinct Madeira cake feel to it, the crystallised ginger is a really nice touch.” Kara fought to keep a beaming smile off her face, the hints of the grin began to break through as the judges were moving on. She caught sight of Lena miming a clap. Now the had a break, then it was on to the technical.

-

Lena was well prepared, she prided herself on her technical skill and had been practicing throughout the week. Her flavour choice (a simple lemon and poppyseed) was basic but she had the method down to a T. As soon as she got the go ahead she went straight into making the batter.

Nothing was particularly complicated but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t spend time on it, everything was carefully timetabled. If everything went according to plan, her cake would be finished on time. At one point Cat and John came across to her bench.

“I’m doing a lemon and poppyseed Madeira.”

“That’s simple but if you execute it well then it could be fine.” Cat was even more intimidating in person than she seemed on screen.

“I’ve made it multiple times and haven’t had any problems as of yet.”

“Well in that case good luck.” John seemed considerably more cheery, but then again, he also seemed that way on the show. 

The judges moved on to the bench behind her, she could hear their skepticism in their voices when Kara said that she was using chocolate. She waited until the judges had left then turned around and voiced her opinion.

“Darling, chocolate ginger Madeira cake sounds delicious.” Lena turned back to her work and continued baking. She got the cake in the oven only three minutes behind schedule and she candied her peel during the bake time. The cake came out a neat golden brown and the testing skewer was clean. Just the glaze and decoration left, she finished the cake with two and a half minutes to spare then stood waiting for the judging.

There were only three people in front of Lena so the judges got to her bench fairly quickly. They cut a slice then each took a bit, Lena felt an uncharacteristically high level of anxiety, holding her breath for their feedback.

“Your flavour combination is immaculate, your decoration is flawless, well done” Lena let out a sigh of relief. They moved on to Kara and Lena gave her a little silent round of applause, it was a good start. Now she just had to keep her standards that high for the next two challenges.

-

They had an hour long break to eat lunch, Kara sat with Mike for most of it, listening to him ranting.

“My cake was perfect,” he put on a poor impression of Cat’s voice “the batter wasn’t cooked, the batter was cooked, shes just a bitch” 

“In fairness the cake did look,” Kara struggled to find a way to phrase it without being mean, “raw?” 

“It wasn’t...” Mike was cut off by the return of Vas, she called them all inside for the start of the second challenge. 

On each bench was a small pile of unidentifiable ingredients shrouded in gingham, this was the challenge Kara was most nervous for. What if the challenge was something she’d never heard of, or if she remembered something wrong. She looked up and saw John and Cat leaving the room. Brainy announce the challenge.

“Your first ever technical challenge is a coffee walnut battenberg”

She could make battenberg, maybe not a coffee battenberg but how different could it be. She took the cloth off her ingredients, nothing was weird, the recipe was fine. She went straight into it, mixing together her two different sponges then baking them in the oven, then while they were cooking she made a batch of marzipan. The cakes came out on time, maybe a bit browner than she would’ve liked but she cut them down to size and began to assemble it with the filling, there were ten minutes left, she would be fine. She started coating it with the marzipan, hiding a crack by flipping the cake on its side. 

It was slightly lopsided but it was done and that was all that really mattered. They were called up to place them behind their pictures, Kara looked slightly awkward in hers, flashing a smile at the camera. She put down the battenberg and surveyed the other cakes, there were a couple very neat looking ones (including one that looked like it had been taken straight from the display of a patisserie), one that looked like it had been thrown together in minutes, one in pieces, and the rest somewhere near hers in appearance. 

They all sat in a row, awaiting the judges criticisms as they went down the line trying each one. They began to call out the rankings, the falling apart one came last, apparently a result of Sara knocking her cakeboard off the bench pre-judging. Then the rushed one, claimed by Barry. Mikes name was called for six and Kara was both delighted and mildly stunned to receive fourth. Nia came third, James second and the patisserie level one came first, claimed by Lena who sheepishly raised her hand and gave only a small smile when the others applauded her.

-

The technical was the challenge Lena was most excited for, it had potential to be difficult, sure, but if there was one thing Lena was good at, it was problem solving. The way she saw it, the technical challenge was just a problem, if her problems were usually covered in gingham that was.

Battenberg was easy, Lena loved marzipan, she loved coffee, she loved walnuts, what could go wrong. She thought she may have missed something it seemed so nicely fitted to her. She made and cut sponge, made the filling, made the marzipan and assembled the whole thing with ease, the pared down recipe causing her no trouble.

It wasn’t her best battenberg but it looked good, when they called everyone up to place their cakes behind their photos she willed her legs to work properly so she wouldn’t fall with her bake. She placed it behind her picture then took a seat in the row. There was certainly a lot of variation in the cakes, she was pretty sure one of them was closer to crumbs than an actual cake.

Lena hardly registered that she’d won the challenge when they announced second place. When they called out her bake as first place she raised her hand to indicate that it was hers, forcing out a smile at the small smattering of applause that came from her fellow contestants.

Ok, two down one to go. She’d practiced for the final challenge, what could go wrong.

-

It was warmer the next day when Kara and Mike returned to set, having spent the last night having getting to know pretty much every other contestant bar one, Lena disappearing as soon as they returned to the hotel. 

They went pretty much straight into the challenge when they went into the tent. For their “cake busts” Kara had chosen Superman. Granted, it looked more like ET than Kal El in her attempts but maybe today would be her lucky day. She baked layer after layer of cake alternating between bitter raspberry layers and white chocolate ones. The construction was the most difficult part, layering cakes then carving them into a vaguely human (Kryptonian?) shape. 

When layering on buttercream she managed to knock her spatula off the bench onto the floor in front, the clatter alerted Lena who bent down and picked it up,

“Dinosaurs? Cute.”

“Mike thinks it’s stupid to have a lucky spatula, objects can’t be lucky. Given that it’s throwing itself onto the floor it might be more unlucky.” Kara held out a hand for the spatula.

“I don’t know, it looks pretty lucky to me.” Lena handed it back with a smile then went back to her work. Kara finished the decorating, using fondant to make her Superman look like a person. The pop art style helped it be recognisable but either way, it was certainly her best attempt. 

When carrying it up to the front for judging, Kara’s heart was in her mouth. If she dropped it, she would be screwed. She managed to make it to the front successfully. The judges thought that the cake was a bit sweet but out of all the criticism to receive, Kara thought that it wasn’t all that bad.

-

An LGBTQ+ activist felt fitting for Lena’s show stopper, while she wasn’t truly American, her partially American upbringing had led to her learning about the stonewall riots, so it was nice to be able to pay homage to the people who got her some of her rights in the states. 

Her orange cake base was cooked and cooling when she heard a light bang behind her, she turned around to see a pale blue spatula sitting on the plastic floor, and a vaguely surprised expression on Kara’s face. Lena bent down and picked it off the floor.

“Dinosaurs? Cute.” Lena genuinely though it was, she’d never seen cartoon dinosaurs on utensils in cooking shops.

“Mike thinks it’s stupid to have a lucky spatula, objects can’t be lucky. Given that it’s throwing itself onto the floor it might be more unlucky.” Kara reached out a hand for Lena to hand it back.

“I don’t know, it looks pretty lucky to me.” Lena handed over the lucky spatula, maybe Lena needed one of those.

She went back to her own work and finished up her cake. She carried it up carefully and was met with glowing compliments from the judges, she couldn’t have imagined a better end to the weekend. 

-

Sitting in chairs they all waited to hear the overall results of the week, Nia to Kara’s right, Lena to her left. Maggie began to speak first;

“I have the nice job this week, the first star baker of the competition is,” she gave a pause for dramatic effect, “Lena” 

Kara instinctively turned and hugged Lena, 

“Well done, you deserve it” Kara felt Lena freeze slightly then melt a moment later, smiling when Kara pulled away. Then Brainy began to speak,

“This week I have the not so job, the first person leaving the tent is, Barry” Kara looked over to Barry who looked fairly resigned but came over to congratulate Lena regardless.

-

Lena was genuinely shocked to receive star baker, and almost more shocked by the rib crushing hug that came from her right when they announced it. Barry’s bad weekend caught up to him, eliminating him from the competition. 

They all gave commiserations and congratulations before some people were called back for post competition clips, Lena was recorded calling Andrea to give her the news, a loud squeal coming through the phone being the most audible response.

-

Kara and Mike walked passed Lena on the way to their car, 

“Are you waiting for a taxi?” Kara asked, trying to not overstep.

“Yeah, the tube hardly goes out this far and I can’t cycle what would be an hour and a half drive.” Lena let out a half hearted laugh

“Are you somewhere near central London? We’re driving back and have space in the car if you want a lift.” Kara tentatively extended the olive branch, inferring that Lena must live somewhere near them if her journey time was the same and in the same direction.

“I am, but I don’t want to cause any trouble,”

“Nonsense, it’s no trouble at all, you can hop in the back.” The three of them walked back to the car together and began the journey back home.

-

Lena felt slightly awkward in the car at first, given that the two others were borderline strangers. The silence eased after a few minutes, her and Kara settling into easy conversation about everything and anything, by the time Lena had to give directions to her flat she had a feeling that they would be fast friends.

“Well, this is me.”

“We’re only about fifteen minutes drive away if you ever want to come over. Wait,” Kara pulled out a receipt and scrawled something on the back, “here’s my number, call me and we can watch a movie when,” she gestured to Mike “he’s out.” Kara handed her the receipt and Lena walked into the apartment block.

Lena looked down at the slightly crumpled receipt in her hand, she might just take Kara up on that offer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Week one over, hopefully I’ll be slightly more on schedule next week. Feel free to leave criticism, queries or compliments in the comments, I try to respond to them all. (You can also contact me on tumblr @/kara-pendragon). That’s all, until the next chapter, Bye!


	3. Biscuit Week

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, this is late and entirely unedited because I ended up with a lot of work this week. It’s also written in a different style to the previous two so I hope that doesn’t throw you off. Thanks for your lovely comments and the kudos, I really appreciate them!

“Gingerbread is logical right? It’s sturdy, it shouldn’t fall over, it goes well with caramel.”

“Yes gingerbread is logical, you’ll be fine, stop panicking. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone panic this much over the arches in a gingerbread cathedral.”

“When you say it like that it just sounds stupid,” Kara took her hands away from the gingerbread structure, willing the caramel to hold and for it not to fall over. “Success, I’m going to kill it this weekend.”

“You mean tomorrow morning?” 

“Oh gosh, it’s tomorrow”

The kitchen of Kara’s apartment was enveloped by a light dusting of flour, a pot of extra caramel waited on the hob. Lena was sitting on one of her bar stools, slightly awkwardly, it being her first time in Kara’s apartment. Mike always worked Friday nights and they’d been messaging during the week so Kara invited Lena over for one last practice round of their biscuit plans, they were going to carpool the next morning anyway so why not hang out and bake ridiculous quantities of gingerbread together the night before. 

“We’re going to kill it tomorrow.” Kara’s confidence was borderline infectious.

“Whatever you say.” Lena said, sounding slightly more dubious.

-

Their car was small, but the drive down was considerably more enjoyable in a car with some people that she kind of knew rather than with a slightly pissed off taxi driver. It seemed much shorter when the time was filled with conversation. She was a little apprehensive at being stuck in a car with Mike, a man she had never really talked to, for hours. After a few minutes the awkwardness lulled and they all got on like a house on fire.

Upon arrival they stood for a few long minutes idly chatting in the drizzle waiting for instruction. They once again recorded short snippets of their outlook on the coming weekend then were ushered into the tent. It was ten or so minutes later that teh judges and presenters came in and then another a few again until they began to film. 

Kara’s worry had lowered this week, she was fairly confident with biscuits, maybe her decoration wasn’t the best, but it certainly wasn’t the worst either. 

“For your signature challenge, the judges would like you to bake twenty four childhood biscuitS. It can be any type of biscuit and any decoration but they must be uniform in size colour and decoration.” Maggie looked around the then gestured to Brainy who called out.

“Ready, Steady, Bake.”

Ok, oat cookies, easy. Kara had practiced them like ten times, it’d be fine. She began to go through the motions of making her dough. It was essentially a crumble topping just with more butter. They were simple but Eliza swore by the recipe so they were the first thing to come to Kara’s head when she thought of biscuits from her childhood.

On the bench in front things were going in a slightly different direction, Lena was making a massive batch of butter biscuits in the shortest time possible. She was planning to cut them out but they needed time in the fridge before cooking to avoid losing their shape in the oven, as soon a the dough was done she rolled it out and cut 30 even squares. They went straight in the fridge, in the mean time Lena made batches of multicoloured icing and filled some piping bags, knowing that the cook time was unusually quick.

Kara’s oat cookies made it out of the oven without burning, a fate that had befallen three of her previous batches. She dipped half of each in dark chocolate then sprinkled it with crushed pecans, Elizas had never been decorated but Kara had been inspired by her long term love for chocolate pecan pie.

The judges approached Lena’s bench while she was aggressively fanning her biscuits, willing them to cool down quicker, she explained the thought process behind her biscuits.

“One of my earliest memories is baking Christmas biscuits with my mum, or well her baking and me decorating with shop bought writing icing, so I’m going for the slightly chaotic decoration of a child who is too hyper on sugar.” Cat and John nodded then asked a bit more before moving on.

Lena let out a sigh of relief, her biscuits were cool enough. Decorating them was an arduous task but she did it with determination, piping miniature stars and trees across the faces of her biscuits.

The judges came and went from Kara’s bench in a blur, she was frenzied, plating up twenty three. No wait there’s the other one, twenty four cookies the chocolate barely cooled in time but they were finished with ten seconds to spare.

Lena’s plating took considerably more time, she had to try to not smudge her intricate piping. With some effort she did it, dusting the edges with icing sugar then waiting for her turn to present her bake to the judges.

“The icing is impeccable, it captures that childlike exuberance without sacrificing the uniformity of the biscuits.” Cat took a biscuit between two finger and snapped it, “good snap too” She and John both ate some then John spoke.

“It’s a very simple flavour but the ratio of salt to sugar is slightly off, I think you might have mismeasured something and you have a great balance of vanilla in there, well done” 

Lena could only say “Thank you.” then watch them move on

Kara’s bench was next in line for judging, 

“Your decoration is quite basic and I see you didn’t go for as much of a biscuit, more of a cookie.”

“Yes I did, I grew up in the states so I associate cookies more with my childhood than biscuits.” Kara smiled, internally praying that she wouldn’t be criticised for choosing a cookie. John picked up one, bent it in half then ate one piece chocolate end first.

“The taste and texture is great, there’s that crisp outer shell and slightly chewy middle that you would expect from a good cookie, they’re a good bake.”

“I agree, the dark chocolate was a good choice to cut through that sweetness, so while they might not be the neatest of the bunch they certainly taste good.” Kara would take it, it wasn’t a failure and they complimented them. That was a success in her book. 

They got a brief break to eat lunch, sitting on the grass enjoying a bit of spring sunshine. The crew filmed various snippets of people’s reactions to their feedback then they were called back inside. 

Going back into the tent was a bit nerve racking for most of the bakers, not knowing what you were baking was always going to be scarier than when you had time to practice. There was very little time before the judges were sent out and the challenge announced. 

“12 identical Viennese whirls.” Lena had made these before so while the recipe was scant to say the least, she knew what she was doing. She started to make her mixture straight away. Kara on the other hand was slightly more hesitant, scouring the recipe for more clues as to what she was meant to be doing. After about five minutes of fruitless looking she decided to wing it.

Kara was still piping out biscuits when she caught sight of Lena setting an oven timer in front of her, she increased pace tenfold, anxious to finish the biscuits in time. As soon as she had got twenty four biscuits piped she placed the tray in the oven and set her own timer. She went about making the filling listening to the beeps signifying the completion of other people’s baking times. Hers were the last out. 

Lena filled her biscuits with care, sandwiching two biscuits with a layer of filling then dipping it in chocolate with a systemic approach. Kara’s method, while messier and altogether less neat, caught back just enough time for her to have completed her twelve biscuits when the times up was called.

They all made their way to front and placed their biscuits behind the photographs then took seats in the row across the front of the tent. The judging this time seemed to go much faster, Lena nabbing third place and Kara coming fifth, a surprising rank no doubt helped by the fact that Sara forgot to put in any butter whatsoever. 

Kara was bone tired and as soon as they got back she went straight up to the room and slept a dreamless, sound sleep. Lena too fell under however it was many hours later, after talking to Eve about artificial intelligence for hours on end.

-

The tent was rather cold the next morning and the clouds had painted the sky a cool grey, rather a step down from the previous day. The change in weather was reflected in the contestants clothing, extra jumpers and cardigans donned by many. Both Kara and Lena felt well prepared for the day, having practiced throughout the week both together and apart.

The chatting outside was much shorter and they were ushered inside much quicker due to the weather and the constant threat of a downpour. Everyone talked amicably inside too until they were told to be quiet by Vas when the filming was due to begin.

The challenges was announced fairly similarly to the previous week and as soon as they were given the go ahead the bakers all began their plans in earnest, all keenly award of the limited time available for complex architectural compositions made entirely of biscuits. Most people were using a gingerbread base, Kara and Lena a included, due to its versatility and robustness, so soon the tent was smelling like a spice rack, notes of cinnamon and nutmeg noting the already lingering ginger in the air.

Batches of dough were made, cut out and put in the oven to cook. Kara supplementing her gingerbread with a brandysnap and Lena with a shortbread. While the biscuits were in the oven everyone began to make decorative and ashes elements. Again most bakers were using similar plans, caramel for bonding and then glacé or buttercream icing for decoration.

Lena left her sugar in a pan over heat while making a batch of icing, the smell of burning sugar reached her nostrils too late, she already knew what had happened before she saw the burnt sticky crust of sugar in the bottom of the saucepan. 

“Shit, shit, shit, I don’t have time for this,” Lena’s mind was running a mile a minute, trying to figure out an alternative, she didn’t have time to remake it and didn’t have enough icing to substitute it.

“I have spare you know,” Kara had clearly seen Lena’s evident panic, “caramel I mean, I always make double” Lena’s relief was clear on her face.

“Are you sure, I don’t want to put you out.”

“It’s fine, really, here.” Kara decanted half the caramel with her spatula into a spare bowl then held it out to Lena.

“You and your lucky spatula are a lifesaver.”

“It’s really no problem.”

“Well thank you.” Kara went back to her work and Lena did too, using the kindly donated caramel to fuse her biscuits into the shape of the local library from the town she grew up in. With a piping bag she carefully wrote leabharlann in icing onto a shortbread sign then adhered it to the structure. It wasn’t Kara’s insane gothic cathedral, but it was cute, complete with a tiny bench outside.

Carrying up the biscuit buildings was terrifying, Kara was the second person called up for judging and the entire way up she held her breath, so scared that her cathedral would collapse onto the floor. Cat broke off a portion of the spire and a section of brandy snap roof.

“The brandy snap isn’t as well cooked as I would’ve liked, it’s got a slight bend to it.”

“Your design and structure is gorgeous though, the construction of the arches seems as though it ought to be impossible in biscuit.” John cut in on a slightly more positive note. Kara thanked the judges then carried her cathedral back to her station and watched the rest of the judging.

“Your structure is fairly simple but well executed, the shortbread is nice but I would’ve liked more of a ginger flavour from the gingerbread. It’s just slightly bland.” Cat was critical, and Lena had to admit, her ginger wasn’t as strong today as it was usually, no one mentioned the borrowed caramel and as she carried the bake back to her bench she smiled and mouthed a thank you to Kara.

There was a ten minute break before the judging, then everybody returned to the tent and sat on the lined up stools to await their fate. One would think that it would be less scary the second time but it was no less terrifying. Brainy stepped forward to announce the star baker, Nia this week. She smiled, squealed then promptly fell sideways off her chair, sending the rest of the room into peals of laughter. Maggie looked slightly disappointed while announcing that

“Unfortunately the baker who will be leaving us this week is,” she paused, presumably for dramatic effect “Sara.” She took it well, standing and smiling, then giving various people her number after they’d left the tent.

As Lena was sitting in the backseat of Kara and Mike’s car on the way back to London, listening to Kara absolutely belting the Grease soundtrack and Mike complaining from the passenger seat, she knew that this competition was going to be the best thing she’d ever decided to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should have the next chapter up on time with a bit of luck. Feel free to check out my tumblr or other works in the meantime and as always you can leave queries, compliments or criticism in the comments. See you soon :)


	4. Bread Week

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ITS LATE, no surprise there (and unedited of course). Regardless of my inability to stick to a schedule here is the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it!

“You know, I submitted soda bread as one of my photos in my application,” Lena said, trying her hardest not to spill yoghurt on herself, “it’s so nice.” 

“Yeah, I love it. By the way, could you grab the maple syrup from the fridge?”

“Maple syrup in soda bread?”

“It works, I swear.”

“Whatever you say.” Lena opened the fridge and took out the half empty bottle of maple syrup and gave it Kara who added it to her dough. They were once again baking together on a Friday evening, at Lena’s apartment this time, making the most of Mikes absence for the second week in a row. 

“Does Mike like it?”

“The bread? No, he doesn’t seem to, but he never really likes what I bake.” 

“Even the chocolate Madeira?” Lena questioned.

“He hated it. Thought it was too rich.”

“Well he was wrong then, that was great.”

“I’m glad someone thinks so.”

-

For once in her life Lena decided to drive for longer than ten minutes, finding her long buried car keys in the bottom of her sock drawer - how they got there was anyone’s guess - and retrieving her small black car from the car park behind the block of apartments. The drive felt much longer when it was absent of friendly conversation, the lashing rain not doing anything to help the situation. She filled the silence with bad radio blather and repetitive pop music, vowing to create a decent driving playlist when she returned home. 

When she arrived she promptly proceeded to fall sideways onto the grass, her usual heels not combining with the wet weather well. A loud guffaw from behind her caused her to whip her head around, ready to chide the person laughing at her bad luck, her face softened when she saw Kara, clearly fighting to refrain from laughing more.

“I’m sorry, it’s just you looked really funny. You shouldn’t keep wearing those ridiculous heels, I shouldn’t be laughing. Please say you’re okay?”

Lena began to laugh at her own misfortune “I’m fine, and you’re right, maybe wearing stilettos on a rainy day wasn’t the smartest thing I could’ve done.”

“You’re right about that, do you need a hand,” Kara held out her hand to Lena, offering help to get up on the gravel,”don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone that the ruthless Lena Luthor needed help.”

Lena took her hand “I’m not ruthless, I just like to do well.”

“Sure.” 

The two walked together toward the tent,

“Where’s Mike by the way?”

“I had to go to the bathroom, he wasn’t bothered waiting so he went on ahead.”

“It means you got to laugh at me?”

“It was worth being left behind.” Kara chuckled again then went through the tent entrance and walked to her bench. She mock-saluted Lena, “May the best baker not burn her bread.”

“How about neither of us burn our bread.”

“Deal” Kara smiled to herself, looking forward to the challenges ahead.

-

Cat looked annoyed when walking into the tent, more so than usual, so when the first challenge was kicked off by Brainy Kara went straight to measuring ingredients. Messing up on bread week would undoubtedly cause Cat’s mood to sour further and Kara didn’t think she could handle that. 

She made a base dough, using the same recipe for both then adding her sweet and savoury elements after was the easiest way to save time, then added the various fillings. Tomato, olive and herbs for one, the maple syrup and pecan for the other. She prepared her bacon and pecan topping as well as some decorations for the savoury loaf then took up residence on the floor to make sure her bread didn’t burn.

On the next bench up, Lena had given herself rather a lot of work. Her savoury loaf required semi-dried courgette, sundried tomatoes and goats cheese while her sweet one needed a separately made chocolate dough and butter cherries. She got the loaves in the oven about five minutes after Kara, praying they would have time to cook. Her decoration never took long in practice so she thought that might make up for it. 

The fifteen minute warning was called and Kara decorated her bread, sprinkling one with candied bacon and pecan, dotting the other with small pieces of roast tomato and olive. It was at this point that Lena began to panic, there were still thirteen minutes on the timer, she waited as long as she could then as five minutes was called she cracked and pulled them out. She decorated them hastily and barely got them into a display when the challenge ended.

Cat and John got to her bench third, and neither looked particularly impressed by  
Lena’s mediocre looking loaves. Had she been religious she would’ve prayed for them to be fine. John took a knife and cut a wedge out of each loaf.

“These look slightly under baked,” he pressed a finger into the bread and observed the way the dough depressed and refused to bounce back, “they’re under baked. Did you cook them long enough? Courgette is also very watery so that could’ve caused your problem.” 

“I had to take them out early, I ran out of time.” John nodded sympathetically, Cat continued to look indifferent. When she too pressed into the bread, the chocolate loaf this time, it took all of Lena’s strength not to physically cringe. She was well aware of how under done the bread was.

“Your cooking times were definitely wrong, this is nearly raw. You definitely had a bit of trouble.” With that the judges left and Lena’s earlier optimism had all but evaporated. She contented herself by listening to them judging the other breads, Kara at the bench behind having much better luck.

“In all honesty I was expecting it to be too sweet, but you got the ratio of sugar to salt just right. The tomato almost reminds me of a pizza, just soda bread!” John clearly enjoyed Kara’s bread, Cat cut in, expressing her agreement,

“The decoration is surprisingly delicate for bread, and your flavours are well executed, well done.” Kara was delighted at the positive feedback and all the way through lunch was rocking on the balls of her toes, trying to burn some of the nervous energy she had in anticipation for the technical.

-

“For today’s technical challenge Cat would like you to make rainbow bagels. You will need to make twelve identical brightly coloured bagels, the ingredients are on your benches.” Lena had made bagels in the past, with fluctuating results. Kara on the other hand was going in nearly blind, having only ever bought bagels in the past.

The dough was fairly simple and colouring it, while messy was fun. Lena wasn’t particularly happy to have her hands dyed bright blue but if it made her succeed at  
the challenge it would be worth it. Lena shaped her bagels into rings, trying to keep a uniform twist, Kara had no such worry, twisting the colours together, then connecting the ends however she pleased. She had a sudden thought that made her giggle, causing Lena to turn to face her. She decided to vocalise it,

“They’re gay bagels, gaygels!” She giggled again and Lena snorted in a rather unladylike manner. Trust Kara to think of gaygels when trying to complete a challenge.

When Lena turned back to her bench Kara tried to remember how bagels were cook. Kara was almost certain she knew how to boil them, emphasis on almost. She knew this challenge would be partially winging it from when it was announced so she decided to just go with it. Boiling each of the bagels then putting them into the oven.

When people were putting out their bagels, the difference was astonishing. Some were burnt, some small, some dull, some bright. Felicity’s looked as though they had been hit by a small grenade. It was like a unicorn had vomited in the tent, or someone had made brightly coloured oversized Cheerios. Cat and John went through the blind judging, people grimacing and grinning as their bakes were criticised and praised. 

Neither Lena nor Kara did particularly well or badly, Lena taking seventh and Kara taking a surprising fourth given her inexperience in the realm of bagels. When they went to sleep that night they were filled with vastly differing emotions, Kara with hope, Lena with dread.

-

The one thing keeping Lena from going insane was the knowledge that there was only one bread week and that next week she would just have to deal with chocolate. She wanted to find whoever decided a bread plaque would be a good idea and hit them over the head with a foam sword. She’d practiced time and time again but it had never come out quite right.

Kara was incredibly prepared and overall excited for the challenge, as soon as she could go she was making a focaccia dough, the bread of choice for most bakers plaques. She made lots of little shapes from mini roof tiles to a tiny little streaky the cat who sat on the bread windowsill of the bread house. Not an activity she had ever expected to engage in. 

Lena too was making a focaccia plaque, surrounding it with a braided border that took longer than expected. Far longer. By the time it was completed she was running behind and struggled to make up lost time. Rushing other elements of a bake was undesirable but she was determined to present something decent. While Kara was leisurely taking her bread out of the oven and adding final decorations Lena was panicking about having to take things out of the oven early two days in a row.

The announcement of the end of the challenge came far too soon for Lena and just at the right time for Kara. Cat and John stood at the front of the tent and the bakers took up their plaques one by one.

Lena was called up fourth, she lifted her tray and felt almost ashamed to be presenting the sad loaf sitting there to the judges, it was below her usual standards and she could tell by the judges faces when they were eating it that they didn’t like it.

“It’s underdone again, it feels doughy and it’s bland.” Cat was blunt and to the point, Lena appreciated her honesty at least.

“I think you might just be having a bad week.” Lena agreed with John on this one, she wasn’t sure she would make it to the next week with her poor show this one.

During Lena’s internal panic, Kara witnessed Felicity present a blackened loaf, and became concerned for Felicity’s place in the competition. It seemed bread week didn’t bode well for computer geeks, Winn’s bread wasn’t received particularly well either. Kara was nearly shaking with nerves when her name was called. She took her tray up and breathed a sigh of relief when John said,

“This a lovely loaf, not dry, good crumb, good proving. I can’t find much fault.” Cat remained silent at his side, saying nothing but stretching out a hand to Kara. She could hardly believe it, Cat’s handshakes were the stuff of legend. To get one on bread week was insane. Kara took her hand and beamed a smile so bright it would make the sun cower in shame. She took her tray back to her bench and smiled all the way. 

-

“This was fun, we can still hang out when I’m gone right. I like hanging out with you, that would be ok right?” Lena was spiralling into a nervous ramble while waiting for judging.

“It’ll be fine, I don’t think you’re going to go. Even if you do I’ll call you and we can still bake together and it’ll be fun ok?”

“Ok-” Lena was cut off by the entrance of the judges and presenters, Brainy stood forward to announce star baker,

“This week the judges could see a clear forerunner, she took the first Grant Handshake of the series, this weeks star baker is,” he paused “Kara.” Kara grinned and grinned and grinned, delighted to get it and excited to tell Alex.

“And this week I have the not so fun job of telling you who has to leave,” Maggie spoke up breaking the happy atmosphere of Kara’s win, “the baker leaving us this week is,” she too waited, giving space for the editors to add the inevitable pans to faces and dramatic music. Lena waited for her name to be called. “Felicity.”

That was wrong, Lena looked to Felicity’s seat and saw her hugging James and saying goodbye to him. Lena wasn’t leaving, she went over to Felicity and said goodbye, still shocked that she had another week to prove herself.

-

Lena walked to her car, when she was at the door a call from behind her caused her to turn,

“Don’t slip there.” The tone was joking and Lena saw Kara and Mike making for their car, parked two down from her own.

“I wasn’t planning to.” She laughed and opened the door.

“See you Friday?” Kara grinned hopefully, looking at Lena but still walking past with Mike. Lena slid into her seat then responded,

“See you Friday.” Lena smiled and shut the car door then started her drive home, maybe this week hadn’t been the best, but it could only get better from here.

When Kara arrived home she called Alex, 

“Hey, Alex? You know how I’m on bake off? I got star baker!” Alex shrieked uncharacteristically through the phone and Kara fell back onto the couch, exhausted from her weekend but excited for the weeks that lay ahead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stick around for the next chapter if you like, no guarantees about when it’ll be up but it’ll be soon hopefully. Thank you so much for reading and for your continued support. If you liked it (or hated it) feel free to leave comments or kudos. That’s all for now, See you next episode?


End file.
